Aviators sound warning of 'privatizing' U.S. air-traffic control

One runway at Morristown Municipal Airport was closed for parking for a National Business Aviation Association conference that drew 2,000 people for networking, exhibits and industry seminars. IPHONE VIDEO BY WILLIAM WESTHOVEN SEPT. 6, 2017
William Westhoven

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A portable marker warns of a runway closed for attendee vehicle parking at the National Business Aviation Association regional forum Sept. 7, 2017, at Morristown Municipal Airport in Hanover, N.J.(Photo: William Westhoven/Staff Photo)Buy Photo

HANOVER - The leader of an association representing more than 11,000 aviation-related businesses is urging its members to oppose a House bill that he says would effectively privatize the air-traffic control industry in the United States and put it under the control of major commercial airlines.

"We are a good industry, we are an essential industry, and we are under attack," said National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen, speaking on Thursday at an NBAA Regional Forum at Morristown Municipal Airport. "We need to make our voices heard."

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Aircraft are on display during the National Business Aviation Association regional forum Sept. 7, 2017, at Morristown Municipal Airport in Hanover, N.J.(Photo: William Westhoven/Staff Photo)

The forum, which took place at the general-aviation reliever airport favored by President Donald Trump for weekend flights from Washington to his golf club in Bedminster, united about 2,100 attendees with ties to the business-aviation community for a day of networking, conferences and presentations by 140 exhibitors.

It also provided a platform for Bolen to rally opposition to H.R. 2997, also known as the 21st Century Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization Act, which would transfer operation of air-traffic services currently provided by the Federal Aviation Administration to a separate not-for-profit corporate entity.

The new entity will be providing a technology service, according to a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee spokesperson, and the FAA would retain oversight of the entire aviation system, and regulate it for safety.

The term “business aviation” refers to mostly small airplanes manufactured and used for business-transport purposes.

"Today, a handful of big airlines are pushing legislation in the House of Representatives to give them control or our air-traffic control system, giving a small group of people, unelected and unaccountable to the public, sweeping authority over things including taxes, investment and operations," Bolen said. "The airspace belongs to the public and should serve the public. We need to make sure the public interest is best-served."

The FAA has been trying for decades to modernize the nation's air-traffic control system while overseeing it with monopoly-level authority. While the agency has had some success, major projects have faced cost increases and schedule delays because of systemic problems, according to testimony in the House earlier this year by the Transportation Department’s inspector general.

“The (act) puts American innovation, and the traveling public first,” said Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), who sponsored the legislation and successfully steered it through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that he chairs.

“The problem is clear: while the U.S. continues to have the safest aviation system in the world, we do not have the most efficient or effective system for future growth," said Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), who chairs the Aviation Subcommittee.

“Congressman Lance has heard from a number of constituents who have raised legitimate concerns about privatizing the FAA," said John Byers, spokesman for Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), whose district includes several towns between the airport and Trump National Golf Club. "He has shared these concerns with his colleagues on the House transportation committee as they continue to work to improve the legislation for all stakeholders.”

The legislation would serve as a six-year reauthorization of the FAA and includes several provisions and reforms designed to reduce red tape in the FAA’s certification process for aircraft and aviation products, improve the safety of air travel, improve the flying experience for consumers, foster innovation in unmanned aircraft systems, fund the nation’s airport infrastructure and "separate our antiquated air-traffic control service from the federal government and help finally modernize the system," according to its sponsors.

Proponents of the bill note that should it pass, the newly created ATC service provider would be a nonprofit entity governed by a balanced board nominated by various aviation stakeholders. Representatives of commercial airlines will nominate one board member out of a board of 13. The NBAA also would nominate one board member, according to the House transportation committee communication office, while actual air-traffic controllers, pilots, airports, general aviation and the government, for example, will also nominate board members.

The bill could come up for a House vote as early as Wednesday, Bolen said, and the Trump administration "has endorsed the concept."

"(Air-traffic control) has always been a monopoly. The question is who's going to control that monopoly and and for whose benefit," Bolen said. "They'll lead you to believe this is privatization, but privatization is about competition, innovation. None of that exists when you're taking a monopoly and giving it to entrenched special interests."

Those special interests should not include the major U.S. airlines that Bolen accused of trying to dominate a scarce resource, hoarding airport gates while practicing "predatory pricing."

"Most recently, we've seen the way they treat customers when they want to bump someone off an airplane," Bolen said. "We know their computer systems routinely crash because they haven't invested in technology, and they're operating 1970s mainframes. We're not sure that something as precious as the public airspace ought to be turned over to this group."

On one side, the bill has support from groups including the 57,000-member Airline Pilots Association International. ALPA President Tim Canoll said his union "supports this important, transformative legislation.”

"It promotes aviation safety and helps level the playing field for American aviation workers," he said, adding it would defend "U.S. aviation workers against foreign carriers' shopping the globe for cheap labor while upholding the letter and spirit of our Open Skies agreement with the European Union."

Bolen said opposition is strong as well.

Over 100 mayors from all 50 states have written to Congress in opposition," he said. "Over 100 business leaders who in addition to running companies are pilots, and who fly in the system, they've written to congress. Think tanks on the left and right have registered concern. The Congressional Budget Office looked at this last month and said it would likely cost the American taxpayers $150 billion to turn this over to the airlines. That's billions with a 'B'."

Noting that most aviation-related excise taxes are scheduled under current law to expire on Sept. 30, the CBO report on H.R. 2997 states that the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate of rate reductions contained in the legislation would result in a gross revenue reduction of $42.4 billion over fiscal years 2021 through 2024, and would have no effect on revenues thereafter.

But because budget rules require that estimates of revenue effects of proposed legislation measure the subsequent change to the baseline, the JCT estimated an additional gross revenue loss $62.8 billion over the 2024-2027 period.

The CBO report also stated that other agencies estimate that enacting H.R. 2997 would increase net revenues from income and payroll taxes by $2.8 billion from 2021 to 2027. That amount includes a $24.6 billion reduction in income and payroll taxes stemming from new fees charged by the AANS Corporation and a $27.4 billion increase attributable to changes in excise taxes.

Bolen also screened an NBAA ad featuring pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who gained fame for executing a safe water landing of a US Airways flight in the Hudson River after the plane was disabled by striking a flock of Canada geese immediately after takeoff.

"We can't trust the people who make your airline seats smaller to run ATC," Sullenberger said. "This would allow a corporate monopoly to make decisions that would put profits ahead of safety and would devastate rural communities."